User blog:Ultimate-Amaretsu/How Battle Spirits turns into BS!
Battle Spirits was quite a nice game to begin with. However, as time goes by, this game has reached its 10th anniversary, as well as reaching the limit of being a 10/10 B??? S???. Now let's see how the game was worse from its development. Background Battle Spirits has 10 years of development, divided into 10 sagas. From the classic Bashin Dan to the current GodAdvent. What was the best saga? Personally, perhaps it's somewhere near Dan to Brave. In terms of game mechanics, it has developed from the simple tactics of either summoning key spirits and/or win in terms of numbers of spirits to a OTK game. However, as the game developed, more problems evolved. Problem 1: NO MORE ANIME Remember the time when you go to watch BS? But now, BS has no more anime. Probably, because the producers got fed up with complaints from the Drive saga, or Probably, they found out that even without the anime, people will still buy BS. But what it means to me is just, THEY ARE MILKING OUR MONEY WITH LESS EFFORT. Whether you still allow them to milk your money without giving you some kind of anime really depends on what a person you are. Some people started to play the games only because of the anime, some continue to play only because they don't want to give up. BUT whatever the reason, to me, it is much less attractive. Problem 2: SIMPLE BANLIST A banlist tells you two things: (1) whether the game is balanced, and (2) whether the producers are aware of the imbalance. Let's have some statistics (approximate numbers only): where card effects limit the number of cards are not counted Now, having only 48 cards, looks quite a decent number isn't it? But now look at the difference between colours! Obviously, red seems to be the most balanced, having a very low number of ban/limited cards, while Yellow, purple and blue is totally unbalanced, being about 2.5 - 2.75 more than the number of Red. From certain aspect, that was true, but also not true. While red had a low number, it had one of the most unbalanced game mechanics in the whole game. It can kill you directly with effect damage, or kill your hand. It can also deal against immunity with Kai, and ignore when destroyed effects. But the problem is: (1) Bandai never had a routine review of banlist, it just kindof reviews it now and then; (2) Bandai often leves unbalanced cards like Nova out there in the market, while leaving some of the less problematic cards in the list, like Shinra. Besides, you will often realise how Bandai loved Red decks. No matter how problematic a single red card might be, they are just happy to leave it open for abuse. But when it comes to certain combos requiring cards that are not red, they will kill that combo without mercy. Another problem that evolves from here is that, Bandai has a liking to use game mechanics to counter inherent problems. For example, to hit the Ninja's, the recent card are all designed to counter against summoning without costs. But let's leave that discussed below. Problem 3: Game mechanics One of the things that I dislike from BS from day one is the lack of interaction between players. What I mean is that you are often allowed to do whatever you want at your main step, without your opponent interrupting you. Remember the rule of : effects resolve one at a time. Bursts was quite a good design, but still, it was just once per turn in most of the cases. Then came some hand traps, which are also my favourites, but still they lack in numbers. But what is problematic is this: Direct Damage without interruption makes this game absurd! I mean revol tiger can deal up to 3 direct damage to your opponent, which is about 60% of their life. Imagine, if you had in Yugioh a single card that deals you 5,000 direct damage, without even relying on your opponent's field, would that card even exist? In VG, you only deal 1 direct damage (if your opponent is four or less), but not more. Besides, another thing is that most loops are created from being unable to interrupt, like the Gold and Silver Fox loop. Moreover, game mechanics are driven from good to mad. Remember, how long it took you or what cost it took you to wipe out your opponent's field in the early days? remember when Canon was complained to be too good to be true? But now, red can destroy as much as Canon can, and even negate their when destroyed effects. Kai can eiter wipe your field, or bypass immunity and deal critical damage to your oppoennt. That's where BS went from good to mad! Moreover, every time they design new cards, some of the old cards cannot even target them, like Ultimates and Grandwalker nexus, and thereby limiting interaction again. Problem 4: Internal Conflicts We must admit that card producers of BS never knew what they designed. First, we had a rule that's called, resolution one by one, no chain whatsoever. But then came cards that states: before an effect resolves, you may activate this and that. If that were to be the case, why not say effects resolve in a chain like YGO? Then, we had imagine braves, that are treated as braves and yet not braves in front of Overlay. Thirdly, we had that summoning by paying 0 cost does not equal to summoning without paying the cost. Man, I don't know about their educational background, but I do expect them to have a certain degree of knowledge in both language and logic. That's all for now, I guess. Category:Blog posts